


Gorgeous

by orphan_account



Series: Trace and Ballistics [5]
Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Genre: F/M, Gen, Nicky is Nat's best friend aside from Hodges, Nicky is the secret keeper when it comes to relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 13:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5377703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not chronologically aligned with everything else; I just needed to write the T&B-verse fallout of the Whatificon Incident. It's safe to say that Nicky is concerned for his friends, and that Natalia and David are emotional messes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gorgeous

**Author's Note:**

> This is a one shot that takes place between "A Space Oddity" but before "Pool Shark".

Today was a good day. Natalia had to leave her lab to go looking for Nicky, because she had matched the gun in his drive-by case to a bullet in a case from last week. She looked around the lab and grinned when she spotted him in the Trace lab, looking down a microscope while David Hodges stood to his right, looking smug. 

Natalia let a smirk curve her lips as she leaned on the doorway to Trace. As if he sensed her presence, David turn to face her, a matching smirk adorning his face. As per usual, Natalia's rebellious brain murmured _gorgeous_ as she admired the way her best friend's grey-blue eyes glittered in the bright lighting. An outward sign of inner amusment really did look good on his face, Natalia mused. 

"Hey, Nat, great. Tell me you've got something on the pistol I gave you?" Nick pleaded. 

Thankfully, Natalia's mind changed gears quickly. "Oh, yeah. I was able to get some partials and send then off to Mandy, but the gun itself was a match to Greggo's unsolved murder/suiscide last week," Nat reported, trying hard not to sneak the occasional glance at David, and failing. Miserably. 

David himself was making a show of checking on one of his machines, disguising his own covert glances. After the Whatificon Incident, they had spent their mutual weekend off together, and he'd suddenly developed a weakness for dark, endless brown eyes. Nat's eyes had almost widened two sizes as he told her the how and the why behind him almost setting the lab on fire. Once he started, David realised belatedly, he couldn't stop, and then for once in his life, David Hodges was disorganised, stuttering and occasionally incoherent as he told his best friend how he felt about Wendy Simms. 

Natalia had hugged him tightly then, the action so abrupt that David almost fell off the tiny blue couch in Natalia's living room. The physical contact was unusual for her, and David was so shocked he almost didn't register the damp spot her tears left on his shoulder. 

"Hey, hey, hey," David murmured as he cautiously placed his hands on her shoulders, gently pushing her away, just far enough to make eye-contact. He reached up a hand and slowly brushed her tears away. "Why are you crying?" He asked, his voice barely above a murmur.

Nat's answer was soft and simple. "For you. I know what that feels like. The ache in your chest when you _know_ you've messed up big. The way your guts tangle in knots when you look at them because you just _don't know what to do._  I don't think you deserve the sadness that kind of feeling brings." 

Her brown eyes were almost black, and they were simultaneously hard yet broken, like glass after an explosion. The raw emotion in those eyes, for _him_ of all people, was gorgeous.

Back in the lab, Nick looked from Natalia, who held her report to her chest like a schoolgirl carrying a book and making rather obvious eyes at Hodges, to David, who was double-checking his perfectly-functioning machines and being just as bad. _And they think I don't notice,_  Nick thought, mentally shaking his head. "Thanks for your help, both of you," he said as he left the Trace lab. "But it's you two who need some help," he finished under his breath.


End file.
